Memoir and Correspondence of Caroline HerschelHerschel, John, Mrs.
History
Memoir and Correspondence of Caroline Herschel
Herschel, John, Mrs.
Herschel, Caroline Lucretia, 1750-1848
Jacob remained with his family until the following July, when he
returned to Bath, this time taking Alexander with him for two years’
leave of absence, the young Dietrich being deemed competent not only to
supply his place in the orchestra, but also to attend his private
pupils.
[Sidenote: 1772. _Early Recollections._]
Nothing is recorded in the interval between Jacob’s return to Hanover in
the autumn and the long expected arrival of William in April, 1772,
except one of the changes of abode, which were of such frequent
occurrence, involving abundance of employment in making and altering
articles of household use, which afforded some relief to the
conscientious daughter, who was sorely troubled by uncertainty as to her
duty in the matter of going to England or staying with her mother,
although the latter had given her consent to the change.
“In this manner” [making prospective clothes for them] “I tried to still
the compunction I felt at leaving relatives who, I feared, would lose
some of their comforts by my desertion, and nothing but the belief of
returning to them full of knowledge and accomplishments could have
supported me in the parting moment, which was much embittered by the
absence of my brother Jacob, who was with the Court which attended on
the Queen of Denmark at the _Görde_, where my brother Dietrich had also
been for some time, and but just returned when my brother William, for
whose safety we had for several weeks been under no small apprehension,
at last quite unexpectedly arrived.... His stay at Hanover could at the
utmost not be prolonged above a fortnight.... My mother had consented to
my going with him, and the anguish at my leaving her was somewhat
alleviated by my brother settling a small annuity on her, by which she
would be enabled to keep an attendant to supply my place.” They all went
over to Coppenbrügge “to see my sister—I to take leave of her; the
remaining time was wasted in an unsatisfactory correspondence: the
letters from my brother Jacob expressed nothing but regret and
impatience at being thus disappointed, and, without being able to effect
a meeting, I was obliged to go without receiving the consent of my
eldest brother to my going....
* * * * *
“But I will not attempt to describe my feelings when the parting moment
arrived, and I left my dear mother and most dear Dietrich on Sunday,
August 16th, 1772, at the Posthouse, and after travelling for six days
and nights on an open (in those days very inconvenient) Postwagen, we
were on the following Saturday conveyed in a small open vessel from the
quay at Helvotsluis on a stormy sea, to the packet boat, which lay two
miles distant at anchor; from which we were again obliged to go in an
open boat to be set ashore, or rather thrown like balls by two English
sailors, on the coast of Yarmouth.[4] For the vessel was almost a wreck,
without a main and another of its masts.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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